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</pre><h2>NAME</h2><pre>
     libtecla - An interactive command-line input library.

</pre><h2>SYNOPSIS</h2><pre>
     gcc ... -ltecla -lcurses


</pre><h2>DESCRIPTION</h2><pre>
     The tecla library provides programs with interactive command
     line  editing  facilities, similar to those of the unix tcsh
     shell. In addition to simple command-line editing,  it  sup-
     ports  recall  of previously entered command lines, TAB com-
     pletion of file names or other tokens, and in-line wild-card
     expansion of filenames. The internal functions which perform
     file-name completion and wild-card expansion are also avail-
     able externally for optional use by the calling program.

     The various parts of the library are documented in the  fol-
     lowing man pages:

       <a href="gl_get_line.html">gl_get_line(3)</a>        -  The interactive line-input module.
       <a href="cpl_complete_word.html">cpl_complete_word(3)</a>  -  The word completion module.
       <a href="ef_expand_file.html">ef_expand_file(3)</a>     -  The filename expansion module.
       <a href="pca_lookup_file.html">pca_lookup_file(3)</a>    -  A directory-list based filename
                                lookup and completion module.

     In addition there is one  optional  application  distributed
     with the library:

       <a href="enhance.html">enhance(3)</a>            -  Add command-line editing to third
                                party applications.


</pre><h2>THREAD SAFETY</h2><pre>
     If the library is compiled  with  -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L,
     reentrant  versions  of  as  many  functions as possible are
     used. This  includes  using  getpwuid_r()  and  getpwnam_r()
     instead  of  getpwuid()  and  getpwnam() when looking up the
     home directories of specific users in the password file (for
     ~user/  expansion), and readdir_r() instead of readdir() for
     reading directory entries when  doing  filename  completion.
     The  reentrant  version  of  the  library  is usually called
     libtecla_r.a instead of libtecla.a, so if only the latter is
     available,  it  probably  isn't  the correct version to link
     with threaded programs.

     Reentrant functions for iterating through the password  file
     aren't  available,  so  when  the  library is compiled to be
     reentrant, TAB completion of incomplete usernames in  ~user-
     name/  expressions  is disabled. This doesn't disable expan-
     sion of complete ~username expressions, which  can  be  done
     reentrantly,  or  expansion  of  the parts of filenames that
     follow them, so this doesn't remove much functionality.

     The terminfo functions setupterm(),  tigetstr(),  tigetnum()
     and  tputs()  also  aren't  reentrant, but very few programs
     will want to  interact  with  multiple  terminals,  so  this
     shouldn't  prevent  this library from being used in threaded
     programs.


</pre><h2>LIBRARY VERSION NUMBER</h2><pre>
     The version number of the library can be queried  using  the
     following function.

      void libtecla_version(int *major, int *minor, int *micro);


     On return, this function records the three components of the
     libtecla  version number in *major, *minor, *micro. The for-
     mal meaning of the three components is as follows.


      major - Incrementing this number implies that a change has
              been made to the library's public interface, which
              makes it binary incompatible  with programs that
              were linked with previous shared versions of the
              tecla library.

      minor - This number is incremented by one whenever
              additional functionality, such as new functions or
              modules, are added to the library.

      micro - This is incremented whenever modifications to the
              library are made which make no changes to the
              public interface, but which fix bugs and/or improve
              the behind-the-scenes implementation.



</pre><h2>TRIVIA</h2><pre>
     In Spanish, a "tecla" is the key of a keyboard.  Since  this
     library  centers  on  keyboard input, and given that I wrote
     much of the library while working in Chile, this seemed like
     a suitable name.


</pre><h2>FILES</h2><pre>
     libtecla.a    -   The tecla library.
     libtecla.h    -   The tecla header file.
     ~/.teclarc    -   The tecla personal customization file.



</pre><h2>SEE ALSO</h2><pre>
     <a href="gl_get_line.html">gl_get_line(3)</a>,   <a href="ef_expand_file.html">ef_expand_file(3)</a>,   <a href="cpl_complete_word.html">cpl_complete_word(3)</a>,
     <a href="pca_lookup_file.html">pca_lookup_file(3)</a>, <a href="enhance.html">enhance(3)</a>


</pre><h2>AUTHOR</h2><pre>
     Martin Shepherd  (mcs@astro.caltech.edu)


</pre><h2>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</h2><pre>
     Markus Gyger  - Lots of assistance, including help with
                     shared libraries, configuration information,
                     particularly for Solaris; modifications to
                     support C++ compilers, improvements for ksh
                     users, faster cursor motion, output
                     buffering, and changes to make gl_get_line()
                     8-bit clean.
     Mike MacFaden - Suggestions, feedback and testing that led
                     to many of the major new functions that were
                     added in version 1.4.0.
     Tim Eliseo    - Many vi-mode bindings and fixes.































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